The Boy in the Park
by missherlocked
Summary: Natsume Takashi met a possessed boy in the park.  Oneshot, gen.


Disclaimer: I don't own Katekyo Hitman Reborn or Natsume Yuujinchou and I don't make any profits from this.

**T**he theme park was very loud and crowded. Adding Nyanko-sensei screeches in the background, the noises were borderline annoying.

"Natsume! Look, look! They have tuna-flavored ice cream! Get me one!"

"Go away," Natsume mumbled tiredly. "I can't have my friends see you, can I now?"

"Fool! You should be proud to be seen with such magnificent being as I am!" Nyanko-sensei cried out, his eyes crossing in a skewed v.

The addressed fool rubbed his eyes tiredly. "Go pretend to be a stray cat or something," Natsume said, pushing the cat away from his lap. _Though it's almost impossible, your pudgy bum could be recognized even from the Statue of Liberty_, Natsume added silently, but he was too nice to say that out loud.

Nyanko-sensei gave an arrogant humph then swaggered off Natsume's lap. Bunch of toddlers held colorful balloons and Natsume watched the cat running after one which had flown free. He wasn't worried about finding him back before he went home later, because all he had to do was buying fried octopus and Nyanko would literally fall from the sky.

It was five minutes to ten. Natsume and his friends had agreed to meet in front of the Donald Duck look-alike statue at ten thirty. Last night there was an exorcising job with Natori downtown close to the actor's apartment, and since the morning after he would go to the theme park with his friends in the city, he figured it would be more efficient if he stayed over.

Natsume was thirty minutes early because he miscalculated the traffic. He thought there would be traffic jam anywhere, and even though Natori had told him the city wasn't that bad, he had been stubborn. He didn't want to disappoint his friends, after all. Now with a lot of time to kill all by himself, Natsume regretted that he shooed Nyanko-sensei away. If he was here at least he wouldn't get bored watching the cat trying to steal hot dogs from mustached uncles or fat misters over there. Natsume would of course feel kind of bad for them, honest, but Nyanko-sensei was hard to stop once he set his mind on something—which consisted of food or sake.

The owner of the book of friends scanned his surroundings briefly. There was not a lot of youkai; they tended to avoid human crowds and modernized facilities. The closest to him was a foreigner youkai—how exciting, Natsume never saw one before, and this one was in suit, too—standing silently behind a brown-haired boy.

Natsume stared at them for a long time. He found rather disturbing similarities between the boy and the spirit—maybe the youkai was his late father or grandfather? That might be the case. Poor youkai, the boy must hold something that he needed to move on. Should Natsume help him?

As if sensing his thought, the blond youkai turned his head to him. The youkai then whispered something right on the boy's ear, and even though the boy didn't give any sign that he heard anything, he too turned to Natsume.

Natsume froze in place, unknowing what to do. Nyanko would berate him about this, he knew. How many times he had heard from the kitty that he should always pretend that he was _normal_ as to avoid youkai-related incidents?

Ah, what the hell. If the boy didn't know he was followed by a youkai like that, that only meant he was possessed. Natsume was going to help him no matter what. This attitude would kill him someday, as Natori had stated a lot of times, but it was just hard to get rid of it.

Natsume walked slowly to the pair, and the child's eyes pelted back and forth from him and away, as if he was deciding to scram or not. He looked scared _of him_, Natsume noted mentally. That was unusual… people generally thought he was harmless until they saw Natsume talked to no one or trashed around when there was nothing holding him down.

_Do you want me to help looking for your mother?_ Natsume almost asked, because the kid looked even smaller up close. He looked so helpless and lost, sitting alone in a baggy jacket on a lone bench, hands clasping his knees awkwardly, and with a youkai following him nonetheless. The boy reminded him of himself, Natsume realized with a jolt, half a year ago, before Fujiwaras hadn't taken him in.

"Are you waiting for your friends too?" Natsume settled to say that in the end, standing just far enough not to cross the personal space. The boy still squirmed uncomfortably, though, glancing at him like he owned a gun behind his sleeves.

"Y-yes, I do," he answered. His voice was soft and meek. The fox boy in the mountain sounded like that, too, when he was alone waiting for Natsume to come out of the train every single day.

"What a coincidence, me too," Natsume answered smoothly, and smiled. A neat trick from Natori, that smile, and people tended to fall for it rather quickly.

The line of the boy's shoulder loosened up a bit.

"Do you want some candy?" Natsume sat down before he offered some candies; four of them with different flavors lay on his open palm. The younger of them looked a little confused at first, but then busied himself choosing the flavor—a chance that Natsume took to observe the youkai behind him.

The youkai looked back impassively, but his eyes were smoldering. The fire on his forehead wasn't even half the fire on his eyes, and Natsume found himself wanting to look away. He didn't, though, and mouthed silently, _please don't hurt him, move on_.

The youkai shook his head quickly and frowned, as if telling _you don't understand_. His blond hair followed the movement of his chin rather dramatically. Natsume thought that maybe the kid would someday grow up to be someone as regal, as beautiful.

"Thank you," the boy smiled reluctantly, but he was far more relaxed than before. Natsume watched him sucking on the candy a little worriedly—did he miss the lesson in which his mother told him not to receive candies from kind strangers?

"I like the grape flavor the most," Natsume spoke up, and opened a candy for himself.

"I like apple," the boy absentmindedly responded, and without any apparent reason, blushed.

Natsume held the urge to ruffle his hair. One day he swore he would have a kid as cute as this one.

"I like your hair," Natsume suddenly began, and the boy cringed while his blush returned three-folds. He tugged his hair abstractedly as though he hated it. "I always want to have hair like that—is it in the genes?"

The boy stared at him in shock; a silent inquiry of '_are you mad?_', and Natsume had to give it to himself that he could've done better. It was just hard to ask someone you just met five minutes ago _is your father alive? Did he have blond hair? Did your grandfather?_ Natsume had to find the connection between the youkai and the child to help the spirit move on.

"I…" the kid started shyly. "Uh, I get the color from my mother. My dad is blond, but he doesn't have hair as wild as this," he pointed at his head. Once a kid started, it was usually kind of difficult to stop, and after Natsume offered him another candy, the kid was practically sharing him his family history. "I… kind of don't like my hair," he stated defiantly, as if daring Natsume to protest, but after a second, he was back fidgeting again. "I think I get this style from… um, my great, great, great, great-" here, the boy's arm stretched out to emphasize the word 'great', "grandfather or something. I've seen his gh- uh, photos. He has blond hair, though. People say we're kind of similar, but I don't think so. Unlike me, he took care of his Famiglia- eh, family very well."

That was it. This youkai was definitely the child's great, great grandfather _or something_. Odd, what would a hundred year old youkai do with his great great _great_ grandchild?

"He sounds cool." Natsume commented. He didn't understand the whole famigli thing that the boy sounded so worried about, but he couldn't mistake the admiration on his tone.

The kid nodded. "Yes, yes he is."

"I'm Natsume Takahashi, by the way," Natsume offered his hand to shake. The boy accepted it.

"I'm Sawada Tsunayoshi," he said.

Now off to find Nyanko-sensei. He would know what to do about the youkai. "Sawada-kun, do you want something from the vending machine? It's my treat,"

Sawada stuttered out that he wanted a coke, and Natsume went. The vending machine was behind a wall in the corner. He yelled out "Nyanko-senseiii! I have takooo!" and he could only hope Sawada didn't recognize his voice.

Natsume tried once more. "If you're not here in ten seconds, I'll eat the tako all for my-HMPH,"

"Natsume! Tako, tako! Where's the tako?" the cat fell to Natsume's face from out of nowhere.

"I'll buy you one after you help me with this kid," Natsume replied, pushing the cat away from his face.

Nyanko-sensei screeched and slapped his cheek with his paw. "You fool! Stupid Natsume, what sort of problem do you get yourself into right now?"

"There's this boy who's possessed by a youkai," Natsume explained quickly. "He's behind that wall," he continued, gesturing with his free thumb while he clicked the button for coke.

The cat grunted. Natsume retaliated. "Two plates of tako, Nyanko-sensei."

"How about three?"

"Don't push your luck, stupid sensei. Just go take a look at him!" Natsume said and pushed him with his foot.

"Two plates," Nyanko sensei threatened, and disappeared on the corner.

He came back just five seconds later.

"He's not possessed," Nyanko-sensei said. "The youkai is powerful, but he doesn't have any ill intent towards the boy or anyone. I think he just follows him around."

Natsume let out a sigh of relief. "But why?"

The cat shrugged, but it looked like he was wagging his fat butt. "He's just like Natori's underlings, I guess. Or that fox boy to you."

"Or you to me," Natsume added playfully. The cat lashed out.

"You ungrateful brat! I'm going to eat you when you sleep and steal the book of friends! Just wait, you!"

Natsume laughed. When he peered out, he saw a tall teen with baseball jacket walking up to Sawada. They high-fived—it was a funny sight to see, the boy didn't even reach his shoulder—and sat down on the bench. Not long after, a silver-haired boy ran to them, bowing right in front of Sawada profusely.

He looked like he was in the nice hands, Natsume thought fondly. He approached them feeling much, much lighter.

"Sawada-kun, here, sorry, the machine is stuck a little bit," Natsume handed the coke, smiling. Sawada smiled back, his lips stretched into a brighter grin, unaffected by the suspicious gaze the silver-haired boy threw at Natsume.

Natsume noticed that rather warily. The picture looked like a dog defending his master, really.

"Ah, that's okay, Natsume-san, thank you very much."

"I see you've found your friends," Natsume said. "You should get going before the park gets too crowded,"

"Yes," Sawada nodded happily. "Um, thank you so much for this and the candies, Natsume-san. Maybe I'll see you inside,"

Nah, he was worried for nothing, then, Natsume thought as he watched their backs getting smaller and smaller. The youkai was a little bit farther behind the boy this time, and maybe this was just his imagination, but he thought he just saw the spirit looked back and winked at him. Definitely his imagination, that one.

"Natsumeeeeee!" A voice came from behind him. Natsume turned around and grinned. "Natsumeee! Here, here! Wait, is that your cat? Why does your ugly cat always follow us everywhere!"

**The end**.

A.N.: I'm so happy that the fourth season comes out AND OH MY GOD MATOBA WHY ARE YOU SO SEXY. And I think I heard crickets from Natsume fandom; LET'S MAKE SOME NOISE GUYS!


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